Libya Accused of Jamming Satellite Signals

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PARIS — Mobile satellite services operator Thuraya
Telecommunications says it has "conclusive evidence" that Libya,
one of its shareholders, is the source of "unlawful and
intentional jamming" of Thuraya signals in Libya and surrounding
areas over the past week.

The Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based company, which has dealt
with Libya-based jamming in the past, said its technical teams
are working to
reduce the impact of the jamming and that, as of Feb. 25,
"voice services were restored over much of the country."

The Thuraya-2 satellite's network is operational, it said, but is
still contending with jamming attempts at its beams serving
Libya. Thuraya-2 is a large
mobile communications satellite built by Boeing Satellite
Systems International and stationed at 44 degrees east in
geostationary orbit. Thuraya also operates Thuraya-3, stationed
at 98.5 degrees east.

The Thuraya statement, released on Friday (Feb. 25), follows
similar complaints from Arab television broadcaster Al Jazeera,
which said its signals into Libya had been jammed, and that the
broadcaster had traced the jamming's source to a Libyan
intelligence service facility south of Tripoli.

Since the rebellion in Tunisia in December that spread to Egypt,
Bahrain and now Libya, Al Jazeera has been forced to contend with
multiple jamming attempts that have led it to switch
broadcasts among transponders aboard satellites operated by
Eutelsat of Paris, Arabsat of Saudi Arabia and Egypt's Nilesat.

Thuraya
suffered repeated jamming in 2006 that affected its
revenue and took the company months to identify. Ultimately it
determined that the sources were several Libyan military
installations that may or may not have been aware of the
effect of their actions. A diplomatic initiative successfully
ended the jamming.

This article was provided bySpace News,
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